Here is disturbing news from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. How could so many hotel workers remain completely unaware of the gunman's plans? Did no one notice his assault rifles? Was no one the least bit suspicious?

Mandalay Bay staff interacted with Las Vegas shooter more than 10 times in days before October 1 massacre

Attorneys for the Las Vegas police said in district court Tuesday that there still could be criminal charges filed in relation to the mass shooting at a concert on the Las Vegas Strip that left 58 dead. The revelation came as Nick Crosby, a lawyer representing the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, argued to keep search warrants, affidavits and findings sealed as charges were being investigated. Stephen Paddock was the lone gunman in the October 1 massacre. Crosby said that because the investigation was ongoing, he couldn’t reveal who those charges might be aimed at or what they might entail but the charges could emerge within the next 60 days. Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, has not been charged in the assault but has been called a "person of interest" by authorities. She was out of the country when the massacre occurred.

On May 18, about four months before the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history unfolded on the Las Vegas Strip, gunman Stephen Paddock was thinking about San Diego. On an HP laptop seized from one of his Mandalay Bay hotel rooms after the massacre, authorities found a web search from that Thursday in May for "La Jolla Beach," as well as evidence that he had visited sandiego.org, the region’s tourism website. The findings were released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on Friday as part of an exhaustive report on the shooting.

From his perch on the 32nd floor of the hotel, Paddock, a professional gambler, sprayed gunfire for more than 10 minutes down on concertgoers attending the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on October 1. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 700 injured. The search through Paddock’s computers reveals queries into several areas around the country, although it is not clear whether he was considering those places as potential targets.

On the same day as the San Diego searches, he searched Google Maps for locales in Southern California, including hotels in Santa Monica and a Venice Beach gastropub, and places in Boston, including Fenway Park and Boston University Questrom School of Business. He also made queries for "open air concert venues," "biggest open air concert venues in USA" and "summer concerts 2017." The search history grows more focused on Las Vegas in September as Paddock finalized his plans, the report shows.

A man who sold ammunition to Stephen Paddock, the gunman who carried out the massacre in Las Vegas, has been charged with manufacturing armor-piercing bullets, according to court documents. Charges filed against Douglas Haig in federal court Friday included conspiracy and manufacturing armor-piercing ammunition — some of the rounds were found inside the hotel room where Paddock staged his attack and had Haig's fingerprints on them. The documents show Haig does not have a license to manufacture armor-piercing bullets. He appeared in court Friday afternoon and was released on bond, with a preliminary hearing set for February 15 in Phoenix. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

No matter how many massacres take place -- Columbine, Aurora, Roseburg, Charleston, Fort Hood, Isla Vista, Orlando, San Bernardino, Newtown, Las Vegas -- Congress does absolutely nothing to curb gun violence. Republicans do the bidding of the NRA, which opposes any and all gun-control proposals. In November, the Democratic-controlled legislature in Massachusetts banned bump stocks. Those are attachments that turn a semiautomatic firearm into a fully automatic one. The Las Vegas shooter used bump stocks. New Jersey and the city of Denver banned bump stocks in January. Several other states are considering bans. Massachusetts Representative David Linsky said, "This is battlefield weaponry that has no place in society at all. These devices are killing machines." Cities and states are now doing what the Republican-led Congress will not.

After Las Vegas massacre, Congress has failed to act on bump stocks -- but states and cities are taking the lead

Unfortunately, no amount of money will ever compensate for all the lives lost.

$275,000 going to family of each person slain in Las Vegas shooting
The Associated Press, Mar 2 2018 9:20 PM

A $31.5 million victims' fund that started as a GoFundMe effort announced plans Friday to pay $275,000 to the families of each of the 58 people killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. The Las Vegas Victims Fund said the maximum $275,000 also will be paid to ten other people who were paralyzed or suffered permanent brain damage in the October 1 shooting on the Las Vegas Strip. The nonprofit posted a chart projecting payments on a scale to a total of 532 people, including more than $10 million divided among 147 people who were hospitalized.

The Las Vegas shooter used bump stocks. A bid to ban them failed last year and the newest bid will probably fail, too. It would need Congressional approval, which is not likely in a Congress led by NRA-puppet Republicans.

This is good news -- but I wonder how many hours will elapse before the NRA expresses its opposition and declares that a ban on bump stocks in unconstitutional. Maybe someone should explain to the NRA that killers using bump stocks and assault weapons are definitely not part of a "well-regulated militia."